June 2013From The Editor's Desk...Portable Audio Was Terrible Back In The Day!
Ok, perhaps not terrible, but something was indeed amiss.Article
By Steven R. Rochlin

Am not saying
high-end audio decades ago was lackluster, far from it! In fact dad’s circa
1969 12" Tannoy Gold Monitors still pump out the juicy tunes to this day! Still,
we are always seeking to achieve the seemingly impossible dream. And that is to
somehow fully transport a live performance into our homes, our portable players
and just about anywhere else we can. With the recent years of progress away from
the CD to DSD and 192-kHz/24-bit we are indeed close. What amazes me, and the
subject of this Senseless Rambling, is on the portable audio side of things.

So how close are we to perfect mobile audio
sound? Ah that is the proverbial $64,000 question! Reaching back to my still
working Sony D-5 portable player and then comparing the sound coming from the
Astell&Kern AK120 we all first heard at the Munich High End show and the
difference is staggering! (Home Audio Squirrel!) Sure those of us familiar with
the fabled and legendary Marantz 8b or McIntosh equivalent love that
sound. But we also know in our hearts that that
sound is not really the sound. Ok,
back on topic, what astonishes me is how abundant the many mobile audio devices
are in the marketplace that can do so many different things. Within T.H.E.
Show’s Headphonium am sure the Astell&Kern, Audeze, CEntrance, HiFiMAN,
Schitt Audio and others will have great mobile audio devices will be available.

Looking around at what the mobile audio guys have
to choose from today would be unimaginable during my youth! This is when the
shiny new (and expensive for the time) Panasonic transistor radio stole my heart
as first personal audio device. It had that cool, now retro black and silver.
Space age technology in the palm of my hand! A miracle! Eventually came the
cassette Sony Walkman. During the Munich High End show it was obvious where many
of you have been spending you heard-earned cash. Riding on the subways in
Germany, walking the streets in New York... or in my hometown. You can see
people wired into something. Still remember the first time walking into a Target
store and seeing $200 headphones for sale. "Can you believe there are $200
headphones at Target?" Sure Target has far better stuff than Wal-Mart, but
still, $200 is not those super expensive Panasonic $47 world’s first dual
driver in-ear fontopids/earphones I bought in the 80’s! Those babies were top
of the line at the time and $47 was long green.

Anyway,
getting back to target, so they have $200 headphones now. Looking at the other
shelves with cheap plastic drek mixed with good quality products from Sonos and
others I muttered to myself "Now if only Target would carry a decent quality
turntable. Yeah, something around $300 and made by VPI, Rega, Linn, Music Hall,
etc." Hmmm, a brand new $300 high-end audio turntable for the masses…
available for purchase at a mass merchant store. Ah yes, one can dream.